Leaders of the biggest civil service union, the PCS, have warned about the possibility of more strikes and court action if the Government goes ahead with its threat to exclude it from more pension talks.
The news came as the GMB, along with 10 other unions, said that they would appeal the High Court’s ruling in November, which said that the Coalition Government acted within the law by linking pensions to the lower Consumer Prices Index rather than the traditional Retail Prices Index.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the move could lead to a decline in the value of public sector worker pensions of up to 25%.
The challenge is based on the fact that one of the three High Court judges supported the unions’ position that the Government should not have used economic necessity or a desire to cut the cost of future public sector pensions as the main reason for its decision.
PCS bosses, meanwhile, have demanded "proper negotiations" over plans to make public sector staff pay more and work longer for their pensions.
The union, which represents more than 250,000 civil and public servants, has also threatened to sue the Government if it follows through on its threat to exclude it from future discussions. It said that it would also ask the
TUC to back any challenge to the move.
Ongoing disagreement
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "From the very start, ministers have quite obviously tried to suffocate the pensions talks, to bully and mislead, and to impose their will on millions of civil servants, teachers, council staff and health workers.”
Although the organisation had “consistently called for proper negotiations on the key issues of paying more and working longer for less”, the Government had refused at every point, leaving it with “no choice but to oppose what is nothing more than a political attempt to make the least culpable pay the highest price for the failings of the banks”, he added.
The Government’s aim is to cut its pensions bill by billions of pounds and, as a result, it wants public sector workers to substantially increase their contributions in three stages between April this year and April 2015. It also plans to bring in new, and less generous, career average pension schemes for the majority of employees, and to raise the pension age in line with the increasing state pension age.
In news elsewhere, meanwhile, a Private Member’s Bill that would have forced unions to repay millions of pounds in wages for public servants who spend their time on union duties has been defeated in the House of Commons.
The Bill, which was initiated by Conservative MP, Jesse Norman, and initiated under the ‘ten-minute rule’, was an attempt to recoup the £113 million per annum that is paid to the 2,840 ‘full-time’ union representatives employed in the public sector. It was rejected by a majority of 79, with 132 votes in favour and 211 against.
